West Hartford, CT

The Lasers opened conference play today with two GNAC wins.  The wins bring the Lasers to 8-9 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Lasell vs Anna Maria

The Lasell University women's volleyball team defeated the Anna Maria Amcats 3-0, in their first match at the University of Saint Joseph's Connecticut on Saturday.

The Lasers started out strong with a kill by Juliana Medini (Roxbury, NJ) and three aces from McKenna McCool (Loomis CA). Lasell would keep their foot on the gas as they won the first set 23-12.

In the second set, the Lasers and Amcats exchanged points and the game was tied 7-7. The Lasers started to get something going and they were able to breakb away from the Amcats. McCool went on a streak as she collected six points herself to make the score 21-11. That would be enough as Lasell closed out the second set 25-11. 

Following their second set performance, the Lasers came out aiming to end the match in three sets. Lasell started off the third set strong and quickly took an 8-5 lead. Madalyn Scully (Mauston, WI) then went on a run by herself as she collected four straight points to extend Lasell's lead. The Lasers never looked back as they won the set 25-15. 

McKenna McCool led the lasers with 12 kills and Emily Cerasani (Buena Park, CA) led the team with 27 aces and 8 digs. 

Lasell vs USJ  

In their second match of the day, the Lasers defeated the USJ Blue Jays 3-0. 

Lasell started the first set off strong as Emily Cerasani went on a six-point run to bring the Lasers lead to 7-1. The Lasers would trade points with the hosts but would go on to win the set 25-14.

Following their first set performance, the Lasers traded points again with the Blue Jays, and it was all tied up at 9-9. Momentum swung towards the Blue Jays and they took a 17-13 lead. After a few points from Emily VanHouten (Rockaway, NJ), the Blue Jays would call timeout as the Lasers were closing the gap with the score 16-18 in favor of the Blue Jays. The game continued to be a back-and-forth affair, but Lasell was able to hang on in the end, winning the set 28-26.

In the third set, Lasell started out with a four-point lead thanks to some strong serving points from Emily Cerasani. Lasell continued to extend their lead against the hosts, but the Blue Jays were able to cut the lead to two late in the set. Lasell proved again to be too strong and closed out the set at 25-23. 

Offensively, Tori Scambray contributed 12 kills in the match and Emily Cerasani led the team with 32 aces. On the defensive side, Maddie Caro led with 11 digs. 

The Lasers next match is Thursday as they host Eastern Nazarene at 7 p.m.